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Communications Director job description
Looking for a new Communications Director to lead your team? Work with our specialist recruiters.
This page details key information about the Comms Director job title. From the main responsibilities through to salaries and how to navigate communications recruitment.
For more advice get in touch with our expert recruiters for a no-strings-attached chat.
What does a Communications Director do?
Communications Directors are the voices behind a company. They play a key strategic role in any business, creating and leading the internal, external and brand communications strategy. Their aim is to drive and maintain brand awareness in line with business growth objectives.
Key responsibilities
While the role will differ from business to business, the core responsibilities are:
- Comms strategy: Define a strategy that incorporates external and internal communications, as well as global brand perception.
- Consistent branding: Ensure the development and implementation of consistent tone of voice across all PR outputs.
- Press relationships: Drive the PR strategy by building and maintaining relationships with media outlets.
- Manage business expectations: Work cross-functionally with marketing, legal, people and HR teams to ensure a cohesive strategy.
- Communicate with the board: Maintain consistent communication with the senior leadership team to share success of the communications team.
Skills and requirements
The Communications Director should have the following skills and experiences:
- 15+ years of experience within a marketing and/or communications capacity
- Data-driven professional with an analytical mindset
- Experience working across a variety of channels, such as social media, website copy, video, audio and print
- Strong leader, collaborator and communicator with proven team management skills
- Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing corporate communications strategies that drive results that algin with business goals
Communications Director salary expectations
When considering the budget for your senior comms hire, it's important to remember that pay largely depends on experience and business size.
Pay can also depend on location - the average salary range across the UK is:
- London: £90,000 - £150,000
- Manchester: £90,000 - £120,000
When to hire a Director of Communications?
Hiring a Communications Director indicates a real investment into communications and PR. As a result, businesses are ready to invest in a Director when they're building their first communications strategy. When you're ready to hire, you should be thinking about what communications can achieve at a strategic level.
At this point of growth, the team usually consists of junior to mid-level communications skill sets. For instance, you might find a Communications Manager executing internal and external communications campaigns. However, they will be lacking the direction that a senior hire can bring to the business.
How should you hire a Comms Director?
You can either engage a Communications Director on a permanent, full time basis, or on an interim contract. The right option depends on the stage of your business and what you need to achieve from your comms strategy.
Contract
When investing in a new job title for the first time, it can be daunting to commit to a full time hire straight away. That's where contractors can be valuable.
Businesses unsure on whether the role is right for them at this stage, should consider contract communications recruitment. This allows a candidate to join the business for a set period (usually 6-12 months). During this time, they will act as a business advisor and make recommendations on how to improve your strategy. They will also be able to guide the current team you have in place and/or start executing campaigns.
From there, you can decide whether to extend their contract, hire someone permanently or re-think the team structure.
Fractional
Similar to an interim hire, Fractional Communications Directors work with your business for a short period of time. The main difference is that they work on a part time basis. This means they largely play an advisory role, leveraging their career history and portfolio of businesses to offer best-practice advice on your communications strategy.
As a part-time hire, they will play less of a hands-on role. So, it's important to have an experienced (Senior) Communications Manager within your business to execute campaigns.
Permanent
Permanent recruitment allows you to fully-integrate the Communications Director role into your business. Hiring someone permanently means they can be more hands-on with your communications team. Rather than simply giving advice, full time Directors can lead and develop your team, helping them to progress their career.
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